


Five Lessons Peggy Taught Melinda

by kitlee625



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-17
Updated: 2015-01-17
Packaged: 2018-03-07 21:42:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3184169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitlee625/pseuds/kitlee625
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While a student at the Academy, Melinda May learns some life lessons from Peggy Carter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Lessons Peggy Taught Melinda

**Author's Note:**

> Much thanks to my beta-reader, Sarahastro, for all her help and advice.

1\. How to shoot

When she arrives at S.H.I.E.L.D. academy she is one of the only incoming cadets who has never even touched a gun. On their first day, their instructors take them to the firing range to demonstrate their skills. Melinda is near the end of the line, and she watches as everyone in front of her takes a turn. They are all good, some better than others, but the instructor manages to find something to critique about all of them.

When it is Melinda’s turn, she tries to appear confident as she takes her position and raises the gun, but everything about it feels foreign. She has studied each of her classmates, and she takes her cues from them how to stand and position herself, but when she squeezes the trigger, the force of the recoil throws off her aim and nearly knocks her off her feet.

When they hear her bullet hit the wall, the other cadets cannot contain their laughter, and the instructor looks disapprovingly at her when he snatches the weapon out of her hand.

That is why after dinner, Melinda returns to the firing range. It is empty at this time of night except for a bored looking agent at the front desk who makes a show of putting on a bulletproof vest and helmet after he hands her a weapon. She is determined to stay until she has mastered it, but after more than an hour, she is no better than when she started.

“I heard you were here this late.” Melinda turns to see Director Carter standing behind her with an amused look on her face. “You didn’t want to join the other cadets in whatever debauchery they have planned to celebrate their first day as S.H.I.E.L.D. cadets.”

Melinda shakes her head. “I didn’t come here to get drunk and behave like an idiot.”

Peggy smiles. “Good. Although to be fair to your classmates, I doubt they will have the energy for this sort of thing after tomorrow.” Changing the subject she says, “I heard about your performance on the firing range today.”

Melinda turns red. She hates to know that she has already disappointed Director Carter. She took a huge risk recruiting Melinda right after high school, with nothing to recommend her but her lineage. “It won’t happen again.”

“Your mother never taught you to shoot?”

She shakes her head. “She doesn’t like guns. She didn’t want me to depend on anything but myself.”

“May I?” Peggy asks.

It takes a second for Melinda to realize that she wants Melinda’s gun. She hands it to her and moves to the side so that Peggy can take her position in front of the target. She watches closely as Peggy prepares to take the shot, all the while describing her stance and aim. After demonstrating a few shots, she hands the gun back to Melinda.

She is nervous firing in front of Peggy, even more than she had been with her classmates’ laughter behind her, but she does her best to duplicate what Peggy has just demonstrated. Peggy patiently works with Melinda for hours, and by the end her shots are tightly clustered together in the center of the target.

“Nice work cadet,” Peggy says at the end of the evening.

“Thank you.” She smiles. “I bet my classmates are going to be surprised when we come back here tomorrow.”

Peggy returns her smile. “Good. They should learn not to underestimate you.”

 

2\. How to get revenge

In her first two months at the Academy, Melinda is written up for fighting a dozen times. She knows that she should just ignore them, but she cannot pretend that she does not hear the laughter on the firing range, the sexist comments on the obstacle course, and the cruel insults in the cafeteria. Push her, and she pushes back.

The twelfth time she is brought in front of the Academy Superintendent, he rolls his eyes and says, “Cadet May. Why am I not surprised?”

She stands stiffly at attention. Her knee still hurts, and she has a nasty-looking bruise along her cheek, but she takes some comfort in the fact that the other two cadets are worse off.

“I don’t think I can remember the last time I had a cadet with so many demerits for fighting. What do you have to say for yourself, cadet?”

She remains silent. What is there to say? All she wants is respect, from her peers, from her instructors, from him. But she does not know how to earn it except by defending herself and her right to be there. She knows that it is not working. If anything, they seem to find her insistence on defending herself hilarious. But she does not know what else to do.

“You’re still on restrictions from the last time you were in this office, so you can add another month to it. And you will need to explain yourself to the disciplinary committee tomorrow --”

“That won’t be necessary.” Melinda turns to see Director Carter standing in the Superintendent’s office. She does not look pleased. “I will handle the matter from here.”

“Yes, Director.” He glares at Melinda.

Peggy fixes her gaze on Melinda. “Cadet May. Take a walk with me.”

Peggy is silent as she walks briskly out of the administration building, and Melinda hurries to keep up. “Director Carter, thank you --” she begins, but Peggy cuts her off.

“How could you be so stupid?” she demands. She whirls to face Melinda, and Melinda can see the disappointment in her eyes. “I can’t protect you forever, Melinda, and if you keep up this behavior, you’ll wash out before the end of the year.”

Melinda cannot meet her gaze. She stares at her feet. “Yes ma’am. I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? Is that all you have to say for yourself?”

She hopes that if anyone can understand what she is going through, it is Peggy. “The other cadets are harassing me. Taunting me. I have to stand up for myself.”

There is no understanding in Peggy’s eyes. “That’s why you’re ready to jeopardize your career before it even starts? To settle the score with a few mean boys.”

Melinda stares at her feet again. She does not know what to say.

“Did it ever occur to you that this is exactly what they want? They’re threatened by you, and they’re trying to use your short temper to get you thrown out.” Her voice softens. “I know what you’re going through, and believe me, it isn’t going to get easier. But the best revenge isn’t to punch someone in the face. It’s to be better than them and to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you belong here.”

Melinda nods slowly.

“And if that doesn’t work,” Peggy says, “just make sure that whatever you do, you don’t get caught.”

A few days later someone throws her into the mud when she is climbing the wall on the obstacle course. Everyone expects her to go after him, but she surprises them all by picking herself up and completing the course without comment. Two days later though, when that same cadet wakes up with hot pink hair because someone put hair dye in his shampoo, everyone knows who is to blame. But no one can prove it was her.

 

3\. How to have a partner

“Why is that whenever I see you, you’re alone?” Peggy asks.

Melinda slides to one side on the bench to give Peggy space to join her. She does not know why Peggy has taken such an interest in her, but by this point she is used to these impromptu chats with the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. “I’m studying.” She holds up a book on S.H.I.E.L.D. history.

“You may be studying, but not S.H.I.E.L.D. history. You’re studying your classmates.” Peggy gestures at a group of men in her class who have gathered on the lawn during this rare free period to play football.

“Is that wrong? They’re my competition.”

“They’re also your fellow agents. You need to build up relationships in this job if you want to survive. Or did you think we would drop you down behind enemy lines to single handedly save the day every time?”

“I’m going to be a specialist,” Melinda says.

“Even specialists need partners. Someone to balance them. It took me a long time to learn that I couldn’t do everything all on my own, but once I did, I was able to be a better agent.”

Melinda stares at the group of cadets in front of her. She cannot imagine seeing any of the men in front of her as a partner. They are not as bad as they once were, but the others training to be specialists are crude and still delight in giving her a hard time.

As if reading her mind, Peggy says, "A good partner isn't necessarily someone just like you. It's someone who you work well with, someone whose skills complement your own, and who challenges you.”

Melinda's gaze lingers on Coulson. He is easy to overlook because unlike the other cadets, he does not spend a lot of time bragging about his past experiences. He is young, only a few months older than her, and whatever he did to be recruited remains a mystery. He is not the strongest or fastest, though he is very smart and an excellent shot. The one time they had been partnered up together for class, he had surprised her with his skills and his ingenuity.

Her conversation with Peggy lingers in the back of her mind for the next few days, and the next time they are told to partner up for a training exercise, she picks him right away. The other cadets snicker at the sight of them together, both of them still teenagers and smaller and gawkier than their classmates, but the amusement falls off their faces when they win the exercise.

 

4\. How to dance

“I saw that you didn’t sign up for any electives.”

Melinda is not surprised when Peggy interrupts her while she is doing tai chi in the gym. She stops and shakes her head. “I’m going to use the time for independent study in martial arts.”

“Your martial arts skills are already unrivaled by any agent that I have,” Peggy says, “but a good agent needs to be flexible.”

“I’ll see what’s available, but when I checked everything was full.”

“There’s still an opening in dance.”

“Dance?” Melinda makes a face. “I don’t really plan on doing a lot of dancing.”

“A good spy must be able to blend into any situation.”

“I know a few steps,” Melinda says.

“Really?” Peggy raises her eyebrows and motions for Melinda to join her. She takes Melinda’s hand and puts her other hand on her back. “If you were on a mission, you would be probably letting your partner lead,” she says as she leads them along the dance floor, “though it is also important to know how to steer your partner should the need arise.” She starts to dip Melinda, and startled, she shifts her weight too far forward and slips out of Peggy’s arms. Melinda glares up at her, not used to being so ungraceful on her feet. Peggy just smirks down at her. “Shall I sign you up for the class then?”

“Yes.” She picks herself up off the ground.

“Good. I think you’ll find it helpful.”

After she leaves Melinda sighs. She really wanted to use that time to practice tai chi. But perhaps Director Carter is right, and it will be useful. At least this will please Coulson. He has been trying to get her to join him in the class for weeks.

 

5\. How to drink whiskey

“Drinking alone, cadet?”

When she sees who is interrupting her, she leaps to her feet. “Director Carter.”

Peggy waves her back into her seat. “At ease, cadet. Mind if I join you?”

Melinda nods, and Peggy takes the stool next to her.

“I heard about what happened in Brewster County. I’ve launched an investigation to determine how AIM was able to find our training facility. From what I heard, I owe you my thanks. If not for your quick thinking and leadership, S.H.I.E.L.D. would have lost the base.”

She shakes her head. “It wasn’t me. Coulson organized everyone. He’s the one who deserves the praise.”

“I already spoke with him in the infirmary, and gave him my appreciation as well. He’s the one who told me that the cadets wouldn’t still be alive if it weren’t for you.”

“It wasn’t enough. People were hurt.”

“Yes, but they’ll all survive thanks to you.”

Melinda shakes her head. “Not everyone.” She knows that she should be celebrating like her peers, but she cannot shake the memory of the AIM soldiers and what she had had to do to ensure the safety of her classmates. She is not sure what she is expecting Peggy to say next, probably something to reassure her that she only did what she had to do, but she is surprised when Peggy says nothing of the sort.

“Would you like a drink cadet?”

The beer in front of her is almost empty, and Melinda nods. Peggy waves over the bartender and orders two scotches. Melinda has never had scotch before, and the liquid burns her throat as it goes down, but she finds it soothing all the same. They sit in comfortable silence for a while, sipping their drinks.

“This is the hardest part of the job,” Peggy says at last. “The dark side of protection is needing to kill in order to stop those who would threaten our world. I wish I could tell you that it gets easier with time, but that hasn’t been my experience.”

Melinda shakes her head. “I don’t know if I can do this,” she says more to her drink than to Peggy. “I know that you recruited me because you thought I could, because of my mother, but I don’t have the same strength she does.”

Peggy looks surprised. “Is that what you think? Melinda, I recruited you for a great many reasons, but your mother was not one of them.”

“Really?”

“Melinda, I recruited you because I knew that you would be a wonderful S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. You have the skills we need to get the job done, and the integrity to know when and how they should be used. Whether you want to do this is entirely up to you, but I don’t want you to doubt your own abilities.”

Melinda does not entirely believe her, but she wants to. “I thought you recruited me because I was a legacy.”

Peggy shakes her head, and says firmly, “Your mother isn’t what makes you special. You are.”


End file.
